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Thursday, March 7, 2013

Fearless Females - Heirlooms

My grandmother Mama Dear (Alice Fleming Connery) had a collection of plates that helped to decorate her dining room. They were displayed in a built-in buffet and hutch that stood at the end of the dining room beyond the long dining table. The hutch part had clear glass fronted cabinets. The plate collection was kept inside the glass doors. The only thing the plates had in common with each other was that they were all hand painted. I was fortunate enough to receive these plates upon Mama Dear's death in 1962. The collection graced my dining room in one home and the kitchen wall in another home. It has now been shared with my daughter and my nieces. Pictured below is one of my favorite plates that I have kept. It is about ten inches across and is about two inches high.

I believe the very first plate in Mama Dear's collection was given to her as a wedding present as on the back of the plate there is an inscription with the date of 28 June 1893. I suspect that it was a gift from her husband Popsy (MJ) since there was a fairly large collection sharing the hutch with a collection of Irish Belleek pieces. The Belleek is another tradition in my family as each of my sisters has a collection that was begun when my mother down-sized and gave each of us a piece.